When creating works for her own troupe, KOMOCO, and preeminent companies around the world, Italian choreographer Sofia Nappi implements her innovative choreographic approach of “listening to the body” and the collaborative “giving-and-receiving movement” among the artists participating in her projects. She spoke to ICONS about the impact of her experience and training on her unique choreographic process as well as the need to build a new initiative from the ground up in her home country.

Dance ICONS: How and when did you decide to become a choreographer?

Sofia Nappi: I encountered dance very late when I was 17 in Canada through my exchange year, so I didn't decide to be a choreographer. I had done lots of other things too—competitive swimming, piano, and academics—so I did not really start dancing until I was 17. I had very little training, and I didn’t know how I could channel myself into this expression of art.

Creation wasn’t really disconnected from dance, so when the teacher at the school encouraged me to create for the little dance company of the school, I knew that that was a profession: to become a choreographer. I started to create little shows of my own for the school. Having a lot of musical training and a musical background helped me to love movement and made it clear that I wanted to pursue this path.

ICONS: Do you feel that your classical training at the Ailey School impacts how you make truly contemporary work now?

SN: Absolutely, because I feel like the discipline ideals and the mythology that I had to follow are really there inside me and my daily routine. That’s what keeps me grounded, what keeps me ignited, what keeps me really inside my flesh, inside my bones, and inside my own system. The structure of techniques allows for the risk of research both as a choreographer for different companies and of my company, KOMOCO.

We use what we call the “source” or the center, and that is taken from the Graham Technique. It's really that sense of groundedness and strength; also, the pleasure of groove—something that comes from a primordial and innate place. It comes from the Ailey School. The required discipline even in the ballet classes was very ritualistic for me, approaching a sacred way of treating your body and preparing it for work.

ICONS: How do you go about making each work? Are there steps you take every time you choreograph?

SN: Every process for me is different; there is not really a formula. Even with my own company and other companies, or even operas, it's really about the group of humans and artists I meet. Sometimes it starts with me generating movement but always I start with a class, which is improvisation-based and which I guide. I get to know them through their responses and with my own movement. It's really 50-50 moving and receiving, but for sure I start from getting to know the dancers’ bodies in a class session where I introduce the research.

ICONS: How would you define your movement style?

SN: I wouldn't define it as a style because that makes it more static. For sure, it is a language that I'm developing with my collaborators—a research language. I would also say that something important about it is that it is ancestral and comes from human backgrounds, from who we are, and that goes into research and practice.

ICONS: You credit Gaga as a large part of your knowledge and movement invention. Can you tell us more about how you use Gaga as you create?

SN: I cannot say that I use Gaga in my creation process, but it's something very deep in my subconscious that I accept and actually a treasure because it was really part of my background. What I know is that Gaga made me find a lot of keys for unlocking how to research intention and movement qualities and where they come from. By knowing that, my movement can always come from a clear intention. A clear sensation can go deeper because I am listening to my body when I make the movement, and Gaga taught me that—to translate human ideas into artistry.

ICONS: In 2025 you were creating work for various companies, including Leipzig, Gauthier, and Ballet BC. Can you tell us about your accomplishments?

SN: My approach is to take it one-by-one because not only am I an independent choreographer, I'm also a director of a company—KOMOCO. And by the way, we just got Ministry funding for a company with all leadership under the age of 35. We are the only dance company in Italy that got that funding. It was huge for our team, and I thank them so much for pursuing the challenge.

I feel like I lived 10 lives in one year, and although I feel a bit tired, I am grateful for my life. I am really bonded with my team, staff, and the dancers I work with, so for me and all of us, KOMOCO is a great opportunity of growth, not only artistically but also personally.

ICONS: Can you tell us more about your choreographic project KOMOCO? What kind of work do you produce and how?

SN: I co-founded it with my collaborators and I'm surrounded by a wonderful team, not only my dancers who are really investing in the project, but also my staff and production team. We’re a young company based in Florence.My next goal is to find a space for us, a home base. For now, we have been collaborating with the Opera in Florence, where we host two intensives a year: a summer and a winter intensive.

We receive many emails about internship requests and people wanting to get to know the company, and the best way to learn about the company is through the intensive because I teach with our dancers. A lot of Italian artists tend to go abroad to seek work, so I want KOMOCO to be based in Italy and contribute with home-grown art by involving various international partners.

ICONS: What are the advantages and challenges of working with your own dancers and dancers from other institutions?

SN: Both are challenging and yet complementary. For example, my dancers know me very well so they know how to challenge me and ask constructive questions because they are curious and want to go deeper into creative exploration. I need to always be ready to dive into something new with them. On the other hand, there is an intensity when meeting dancers of other companies for the first time and establishing a conversation. Both are challenging and yet incredibly complementary for me, as an artist and a person.

ICONS: You're starting a new piece next week with KOMOCO. What can you tell us about that piece?

SN: CHORA deepens an abstract idea such as the void, yet it emerges from a reflection on our way of being in the world. It is an investigation into beginning from silence, from not knowing, and the acceptance of ambiguity as essential states of existence. Perhaps it is precisely in the coexistence between control and surrender that the origin of gesture can be found.

The empty space—already a central element in my previous creations—becomes in this piece a tangible presence. Through deep listening, the choreography allows movement to arise from silence and waiting. Fragile gestures of the seven dancers expand into collective flows; minimal pauses turn into shared rhythm. What initially appears as emptiness reveals itself as a field of connection and memory between the performers on stage.

CHORA – The Void at the Origin aims to be a sensory and contemplative experience rather than a narrative one. It is an invitation to return to the beginning—to the primordial void before movement, language, and identity—to listen to what exists before meaning, and to recognize that we are shaped not only by what we do, but also by the spaces within us, the silences we carry, and the invisible forces that surround us.

ICONS: Do you have any choreographic dreams?  What is your wish list?

SN: My immediate wish is a full-length work with live music with KOMOCO for larger audiences, as I have done for other companies. I also want to keep building a long-term repertory for KOMOCO, creating works that can evolve, be revisited, and transmitted across generations of dancers. I’m eager to create a piece that moves fluidly between dance and other performing arts, such as opera, installation, or cinematic formats, without losing the intimacy of the body.

I am invested in developing pedagogical tools, workshops, or written material that articulates my choreographic practice and allows it to be shared beyond performance. My final secret wishes are to get more time for research that chooses depth over speed and growth that preserves curiosity.

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Biography of Sofia Nappi can be found here: 

Contributing photographers: © Duy Le,  Portrait of Sofia Nappi, © Valerio Baranovic © Alice Vacondio © Cladio Montanari © Hubert Lankes © Pablo Lorente © Valerio Baranovic © Ida Zenna © Joris-Jan Bos,  production and stage photography of KOMOCO, Leipzig Ballet, and Ballet BC. 

Video trailer of Sofia Nappi's LILA for Ballet BC:

INTERVIEW'S CREATIVE TEAM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

Interviewer: Charles Scheland

Executive Content Editor: Camilla Acquista

Executive Assistant: Charles Scheland

Founding and Executive Director: Vladimir Angelov

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